Vidic and Ferdinand miss Gers match

Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic will both miss Manchester United's Champions League trip to Rangers.

Although the central defensive duo trained at Carrington on Tuesday morning, neither were part of Sir Alex Ferguson's squad for the Battle of Britain clash at Ibrox.

With a Premier League meeting with in-form Blackburn looming on Saturday and a Carling Cup quarter-final at West Ham next Tuesday, Ferguson has opted to give both men a rest, believing his squad are capable of gaining the point required to secure qualification for the knock-out phase without them.

Chris Smalling and Jonny Evans, who has not featured since the Carling Cup win over Wolves in October, are expected to deputise.

In addition, Darren Fletcher also sits out the return to Scotland. Although he has had a heavy workload recently, Fletcher would have relished an outing for United north of the border.

Darron Gibson and Gary Neville were the other notable absentees from training as United stayed at Carrington for their final session ahead of their short flight to Glasgow.

Ryan Giggs took part in training and Wayne Rooney is expected to make his first start since the Premier League visit to Bolton at the beginning of last month.

Meanwhile Park Ji-sung, looking ahead to the Battle of Britain collision, does not feel it quite matches the games he plays for South Korea against Japan.

"We have a long history with Japan," he said. "When South Korea play against Japan the fans tell us that if we lose they are going to throw the players into the sea. Without doubt, they are the biggest thing for us."

Yet Park is acutely aware of the cross-border tensions that surround English meetings with Scotland.

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